Michigan Coach John Beilein: “Long Beach State just wouldn’t go away. Dan (Monson) has been waiting for his guys to shoot the ball a little bit better and they shot it well in the first half. They hit six threes and were right there. Thank goodness we shot it even better than that.”

“You know at this time of the year, given the inexperience on both teams, there’s going to be runs. They made a great run, but then we picked up on the clock mistake and Nik (Stauskas) made a big, big shot. That’s probably one of our first big shots of the season, because it was going the other way quick. He made a huge one. That wasn’t part of a play; that was Nik doing what he does.”

“A couple of things we saw during their run – we thought our spacing was bad, it had crept back so we shrunk the court for them. We didn’t think we ran very well. And then our defense at times, it was just really bad. We just showed a lot of inexperience.”

“I wouldn’t say Nik (Stauskas) has taken over, but when we feel he’s got it going…in the last couple games he did a good job. We’ve got a set of plays we run through him, and what I like is he’s finding open people. I don’t think he forced a shot today.”

Michigan Guard Caris LeVert: “We did a great job the second half of really pulling away, they played well the whole game though. I think our defense really helped us get the win.”

“I think I rushed some shots against Iowa State. I watched a lot of film and got a lot better from that. We played a lot better today.”

“I think we’re getting better at closing out games, each game we get more experience.”

Michigan Guard Nik Stauskas: “You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Long Beach State. They gave us a really good game today, they were really competitive with us. Like Caris (LeVert) said, I think we did a really good job in the second half. That last 10 minute stretch we really just pulled away and took the game away.”

“Guys were just doing a really good job of getting into the lane and finding me when I was open. Caris (LeVert) and Glenn (Robinson III) had a couple of really good passes to me today. Anytime I can get open shots, I hope I can knock them down.”

“Trey (Burke) was National Player of the Year so, and Tim (Hardaway, Jr.) was a first round pick so it’s kind of tough to replace that. Me and Caris (LeVert) put in a lot of time this off-season working out. We’re just trying to do our best and we’re just happy we have this opportunity right now.”

Long Beach State Coach Dan Monson: “This is our third BCS game – Kansas State, Arizona and Michigan – we’ve just got to be able to take scouting reports and be able to disrupt somebody and not get people comfortable right out of the gate so easy. Part of it today was my fault, I tried to start in a triangle and two on Stauskas and LeVert and then Robinson III and Walton Jr. hit threes. Right out of the gate, they’ve got two guys who had been struggling a bit in a rhythm.

“We’ve been playing from behind so much in these games, you’ve got to hang in for your opportunities. We fought back and got it to seven I think in the first half and then once again in the second half, but then we made a lot of mistakes and beat ourselves. You can’t do that against a great team like this. They have so many weapons offensively and we just didn’t have an answer to slow them down on the offensive end of the floor.”

“These tournaments have always produced improvement for us, and that’s really important. You know, I’m not in Vegas, but I don’t think the odds of us winning this tournament were quite what they were a couple years ago when we were in there with some other teams. This is about us getting better for March.”

“We haven’t had a winning season in seven years, since I’ve been at Long Beach State, in the pre-season. We have had the No. 1 RPI January 1st the last three or four seasons, just playing tough teams. Every year the last three we’ve been able to win our league by getting better at this time. So it truly is a preseason for us right now. We’ve got to get better tomorrow and if we play even better than that on Sunday, then we’ll have an opportunity.”

Id rather play VCU than FSU.. FSU is massive. two 7 footers who play and then 6’9 and 6’8 on the wings

Kam

7 foot 3 6’9 6’8 6’2 6’3… Thats reallyyyy big.. Thats NBA big

Kam

7 foot 1 off the bench

arsenal926

the backup center is significantly better IMO

gobluemd16

Commented this on the postgame videos, but yeah they are HUGE. Going to have to play our two big lineup, and I am glad Mitch played 14 mins tonight cause we will need him (if FSU wins).

Kam

They will def have to use a two big line up a lot! id go Walton Nik Glenn Jon Mitch. caris right off the bench

gobluemd16

25-11 rebounding advantage first half for FSU

Kam

They are not extremely talented skill wise but they are massive which makes them tough for weak rebounding teams like us.. if we don’t box out we will lose

guestavoe

Can they get up and down? Run them off the court?

Kam

It will be hard to run them off the court because they don’t take quick shots. They kinda play at their own tempo. so if we cant turn it over and don’t get rebounds it will be tough.. But VCU has turned them over 14 times and are still down 12

arsenal926

they’re big, but I haven’t come away thinking they are particularly skilled. This game reminds me a lot of the NIT Championship last year against KSU where Glenn was guarding a 7 footer and only struggled occasionally. The guy who is 7-3 can’t weigh more than 220 pounds so I really think Mitch would be able to dominate. I’m more worried about their guard size than the big men.

Kam

it says he is 240 But that is still really light for 7 foot 3.. and i just looked at the guards again and yeah they go 6’3 6’7 and 6’8. They may post caris and Nik again which may be a problem.

arsenal926

He’s honestly has the exact body from of Caris (the freshman version) I would be shocked if he actually weighed 240. I’m honestly shocked how terrible VCU has looked.

Kam

do they look more overrated than FSU looks great??

arsenal926

probably that VCU is overrated. They didn’t play anybody last year, but I chalked their loss against us up to Michigan being a matchup nightmare for them. However, they should be able to dominate FSU on offense and with the press and that clearly didn’t happen. FSU is going to be a very tough game, but I don’t think they’re as good as Iowa State.

Kam

Oh ok thats good! Does FSU look good on offense? i cant watch because ESPN U isn’t working for me.. because i know FSU is big but I’m shocked they are winning by sooo much

arsenal926

hard to tell when they’re getting such easy shots. FSU made a lot of hard shots in the 1st half but they also had a ton of easy ones that happen when you break the press.

gobluemd16

Watching VCU reminds me of why we absolutely whipped them in the tournament.. so many transition opportunities and open shots

kainkitizen

Florida State might be a tall team but remember that our Final 4 match-up with Syracuse was a tall match up for us too. It should be a competitive game for both teams. It will be a match-up war for both coaches. It might be a nail biter at the end.